Qin Wang’s gaze immediately turned wary at his words. “What do you want now?”
“Nothing, I just suddenly remembered that she used to be pretty good to me.”
Qiao Xi’s expression was sincere, tinged with a hint of remorse as she said, “I was a bit stubborn about the whole Kele thing before. I’m the one who should apologize to Auntie.”
Qin Wang stared at her for a long moment, trying to find a flaw in her face.
Finally, he replied with a mixture of doubt and belief, “She’s in Yunjing. She’s doing well.”
“She’s in Yunjing too.”
If she remembered correctly, her mother and younger brother were also in Yunjing.
She never expected that the people she hated would end up together on their own.
After the meal, Xia Manman still hadn’t returned.
As Qin Wang helped Qiao Xi upstairs, they heard Chen Zhiang say he was going out to look for her.
Xia Manman had run out alone and noticed no one was chasing after her.
With a lump of anger stuck in her chest, she unknowingly walked all the way to the seaside.
It was nearly dark by then. Below, the waves slammed forcefully against the rocks.
The surroundings were eerie and gloomy, and fear slowly wrapped around her.
Xia Manman quickly scanned her surroundings, her heart beginning to race with panic. She turned around to head back.
But the next instant, three men suddenly jumped out in front of her, blocking her path.
The three of them reeked of a burnt smell and wore fierce expressions—clearly not good people.
After the apocalypse, order had collapsed and humanity’s evil had been magnified to the extreme. Strangers who appeared out of nowhere were sometimes more dangerous than zombies.
Xia Manman’s heart pounded wildly. She forced herself to stay calm and spoke up: “Who are you people? My companions will be here soon. If you know what’s good for you, get out of the way!”
They were the same few people Qin Wang had casually immobilized by the seaside.
The three of them looked Xia Manman up and down, exchanging glances with each other.
“Your companions are Ability Users?” one of them, a man with a square face, asked.
Xia Manman looked at him with an air of arrogance. “Of course! One’s a lightning-type and one’s a fire-type!”
Hearing the words “lightning-type,” the three of them shuddered.
The square-faced man instinctively glanced around and said to the other two, “It must be that pretty boy!”
“He killed Zhao Mu. Let’s take this woman back and let the boss decide what to do with her.”
“Let’s do it!”
The moment the words fell, someone reached out to grab Xia Manman.
Her face turned pale as she instinctively tried to flee, but glancing at the cliff behind her, she hesitated.
The next instant, her arm was twisted behind her back. Before her scream could even escape, she was knocked unconscious by a chop to the neck.
…
Night fell. Outside, wandering zombies howled as they searched for food.
The roars came and went, never ceasing. The instinctual hunger in her body made Qiao Xi restless and agitated.
She tossed and turned in bed, stuffing her ears with a pillow and blanket.
But the roars couldn’t be blocked out. The hunger was like an invisible net enveloping her, seeping through every pore of her body, making her want to go mad.
After who knew how long, she suddenly sat up in bed, then got down, pulled open the wardrobe door, and crawled inside.
The moment the wardrobe door closed, Qiao Xi let out a sigh of relief.
It seemed only by staying in a cramped space could she calm her agitation.
On the other side,
A seaside warehouse not far from them glowed with faint light.
Food wrappers were scattered on the ground. Four mattresses were laid out haphazardly in the middle, with seven or eight men sitting on them.
In the center of them was a burned-out campfire.
Xia Manman lay on one of the mattresses, her hands bound, her clothes torn and disheveled, her eyes vacant, her body covered in ambiguous marks.
A bearded man climbed off her, pulling up his pants with a satisfied expression as he walked toward the others.
“Brother Li, tell us what to do—we’ll all follow your lead!”
At that, someone chimed in,
“Yeah, they’ve only got two Ability Users, and we’ve got three. Why the hell should we be afraid of them?”
The man called Brother Li was a fair-skinned man in his thirties named Li Feng. He wasn’t tall and was an ice-type Ability User.
He was the strongest among them. Besides him, there was also a wind-type and a plant-type.
The one who died at the seaside today was the wind-type Ability User’s younger brother.
It had been so long since the apocalypse began, and they had been dominating this area the whole time without ever running into a worthy opponent.
Especially someone like Qin Wang, who killed one of their brothers with a single move.
No one could just let that slide.
After the three returned, they had been discussing how to vent this anger.
The group turned their gazes to Li Feng, waiting for him to make the decision.
He glanced at the other two Ability Users. “Either we don’t make a move and let this go.”
“Or if we do, we settle it tonight.”
“What do you two think?”
The wind-type and plant-type exchanged a look.
The former crushed his cigarette butt out hard. “Tonight it is!”
He was going to avenge his brother and personally kill that pretty boy.
After the group made their decision, one of them grabbed Xia Manman by the hair and dragged her over.
“Bitch, you tell us whatever we ask. Lie to us, and you’ll suffer!”
Xia Manman’s tears fell from the pain as she nodded frantically.
…
In the latter half of the night.
The roars outside gradually faded.
A group of people quietly slipped into the courtyard of the guesthouse where Qiao Xi and the others were staying.
Li Chuan, who was keeping watch downstairs, immediately sensed something was wrong. As dark figures kept approaching the front door, he stared at the shadows outside, energy flowing through his palm, ready to unleash a fireball at any moment.
But he made no move for a long time.
Hidden in the darkness, he watched Xia Manman being dragged along by the two men.
When they reached the off-road vehicle, she stopped in her tracks and began to plead in a low voice, “The people you’re looking for are upstairs. Can you let me go?”
The man in front turned back and glared at her. “There are so many rooms upstairs. How are we supposed to know which one?”
“2305 and 2308. The people you’re looking for are in there.”
Li Chuan narrowed his eyes. The people they were after were Qin Wang and Qiao Xi?
Since they’d come for them, he was in no hurry to make a move.
And judging by the looks of it, this was most likely a revenge mission.
“What about the other Ability User?” someone asked.
Xia Manman shook her head. “I don’t know. I only noticed their two rooms…”
“Useless thing!”
Xia Manman was dragged aside with her mouth covered.
Li Feng gestured to the other two Ability Users. “Let’s take down the strongest one, the Lightning-element, first. No rush on the rest.”
“And that woman—she might come in handy at a critical moment.”
“Got it.”
They crept upstairs in the dark, splitting into two groups. Li Feng led the Wind-element user to Qin Wang’s room.
The Plant-element user, being weaker, went to Qiao Xi’s room, intending to capture her so she could be used to threaten Qin Wang if necessary.
Downstairs, only two ordinary men were left guarding Xia Manman.
After hearing what she’d said, they found a freshly opened bag of rice in the kitchen and carried it out with glee.
Taking advantage of their carelessness, Li Chuan turned his flames into flying blades that pierced the backs of their necks. They collapsed without even a chance to scream.
After taking down the two men, he saw Xia Manman climb into the car with the shattered windshield.
“Where are you going?”
By the time the sounds of fighting erupted upstairs, she had just started the engine.
But before she could turn the car around, a dark figure appeared outside the driver’s door.
Xia Manman was startled out of her wits.
“You… you…”
Upstairs.
Fierce fighting erupted from Qin Wang’s room, the door panel sealed shut with ice.
At the same moment, Qiao Xi’s door was kicked open with a single blow.
A surge of unfamiliar energy and the scent of flesh and blood flooded in. The restlessness and hunger that had barely settled exploded in that instant, and rationality was devoured by the urge to feed.
The man entered and manipulated vines to attack the direction of the bed, completely unaware that a pair of scarlet eyes in the gap of the wardrobe door were fixed dead on him.
When he realized his attack had missed, he couldn’t help but mutter in confusion, “Where is she?”
Before the words even faded, the wardrobe door behind him suddenly burst open, and a figure lunged out.